Dec 18 Day 19: Lehava, Israel - Romi Grauman

The day began with what we’d like to call a “sleep-in”. Heading down to the breakfast buffet, where we were presented once again with an endless supply of food.

After breakfast and prayers, we headed off for the day, our first stop being the water tunnels in the City of David. We stopped to put on our thongs and roll up our pants before making our way down, all chatting with excitement and a tinge of nervousness about what to expect. We wondered how dark it will be, how high the water will come up on each of us, how narrow it would be and the hilarious, yet much anticipated question everyone was thinking “would we be the person to get stuck?“

We made our way down into the tunnels, filled with excitement and began to relax. That was until we made our way to the entrance of the water. Many gave it one look and instantly regretted their decision to go through the tunnels. Not realising just how dark the tunnels were and how unnerving it was going into the pitch black, as many of us weren’t smart enough to turn our flashlights on at the start of the tunnels. After quite a bit of convincing, the majority of us made it into the tunnels. We began our walk through, slowly at first, gaining confidence the further we got. Walking through the narrow tunnels, almost knee deep in water, hearing the voices of those in front constantly yelling “watch your head” and “the water gets deeper here!” All the whilst listening to Adam Cohens harmonious tunes throughout the journey that kept us all calm and laughing. As we reached the end of the tunnels, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

For many, we thought the adventure was over, but boy were we wrong! Much to our despair, we found out we had to make our way through what we believed to be an endless tunnel, before making our way to the Old City. Many of us exclaimed that this was worse than the water tunnels itself! Each person took their turn to complain about the narrow tunnel, the long walk, their tired legs, or the endless amount of stairs.

We finally got to the Old City and had some quiet time to ourselves and made our way down to the Kotel to daven Mincha. This was an opportunity for us to pray and reflect on our time so far here in Israel.

With some free time in the Old City, we got to shop and walk around, and look at all the stores before having a tour of some of the sites of the Old City.

We then got back to the hotel, and had a big dinner joined with Netzach, after being separated for what felt like forever, filled with chatter and laughter . Many visitors living in Israel arrived to join us for the night, kicking off the much awaited Chanukah party with a bang, . This was followed by a surprise performance from our mads as they danced and performed for us. After their spectacular performance, we all continued to enjoy the party, dancing away to the Israeli music, all getting involved and partying the night away.

The last duty of the night was for us all to once again repack our suitcases for our much awaited free weekend which came at the perfect time!